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Bro. Otis Fisher
The lesson today begins in chapter 5 in the Book of Romans, chapter 5, verse 1. Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace. Greg, what is peace? The word peace means harmony. Now, what does it bring to mind, Greg?
An agreement in feeling or opinion, a pleasing combination of elements in a whole. Harmony or peace. Therefore, being justified by faith, we have, right now, peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Meaning, Russell, that it's impossible to have this peace unless it is through Jesus Christ. People cannot worship the Heavenly Father or have peace with the Heavenly Father unless they are in Christ.
I don't care how much argument or theology people have that Jesus is not necessary. He is. Absolute. Turn to the Book of Hebrews, to the 12th chapter, please, in the 2nd verse. Russell, would you read verse 2 for us?
Alright, please notice in that verse, Who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross. Now, joy and endure do not go together. So it must be something in reference here other than just the cross.
David, what do you suppose it would be? Alright, I know coming in cold is a little difficult. Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who, meaning Jesus, for the joy, and we understand the word joy, that was set, passive, before him endured the cross.
Joy and enduring are not compatible. Well, the joy that he had. That's right, absolutely. Don't ever think and misinterpret this that he was joyful to go to the cross. Now, he went in obedience, but the joy that he was looking at, Russell, was that that was on the other side of the cross, after the finished work of the cross.
And the verb set here is passive. Greg, what would that mean? He is set down at the right hand of the throne. Right. Because of what he did, because of everything involving Jesus, he was made to sit at the right hand of the Heavenly Father.
Well, it doesn't say set. It says set. That's right. I got goosebumps when I saw that. The word have, we have peace. Have is present tense, perfect, means we have peace once and for all. Peace, do you feel peaceful, Russell, on the inside, or are you always trying to change things in order to feel better?
Don't answer that. The secret to peace is to work from the inside out, not from the outside in. So we have this peace, this harmony, with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access by faith into his grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
We have access. To have access to anything means that there is a third party involved. You cannot have direct access to God. It must be through or by something else. And in this case, it is our Lord Jesus Christ.
We have access by faith into his grace wherein we stand. So joy, it says, wherein we stand, wherein would refer to what? All right, we stand in faith. Stand is perfect, present, once for all. Rejoice and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
Rejoice is imperfect. Greg, what's the difference between a perfect verb and an imperfect verb? Perfect is that it occurred at one time and the effects of it last forever. Imperfect is it's done over and over and over.
Well, it so happens that the word rejoice is imperfect. Now, that would mean that we do rejoice and we rejoice and rejoice and rejoice forever. Verse 3,. And not only so, but we glory in temptations. Knowing that tribulation, or we glory in tribulations, excuse me.
Knowing that tribulation worketh patience. Tribulation is a powerful instrument for increasing our happiness and peace. In what? Yes, yes, that's right. Count it all joy. Greg says that's his favorite, one of his favorite verses.
And it's easy to say, but Steve, it's a little bit difficult sometimes to do. Why does it become difficult, Steve? That's right. If sin had never come, we'd have never learned the joy of patience or love or forgiveness.
Then he said, worketh, worketh patience. Patience worketh or work supplies the occasion by which all of this comes about. Patience is never taking your eye off of the goal, never giving up. Patience. Russell, patience is not sitting down someplace and waiting on something to happen.
Patience is active. You are busy, but you do not deter from the goal. You have set a goal and you continually work toward it. Our goal is eternity with God. Now we have that, but we're told to work out our salvation.
If I was to give Greg 40 acres of bottom land and told him to work it out, but it's a gift, he can have it. What do you suppose I would mean for Greg to do? All right. I would expect some produce off of it.
In Ephesians 111, we have in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will. You should always read Ephesians 111 in conjunction with Romans 8 .28.
All things work together. This is how they do, because he works everything according to his own will. Don't have the mistaken idea, as so many have, that God is just watching everything, and whatever occurs, he twists it around to where it's good.
That's not my God. Everything occurs that is ordained to occur. The word hope would refer back to Romans 28 or to Ephesians 111. Our hope is eternity with him. Now the fourth verse. And patience brings experience, and experience hope, joyful and confident, expecting expectations of eternal salvation.
Five. And hope maketh not ashamed. The word ashamed means what? Is Trudy in here? What? Yes. Not ashamed. No fear. No fear. We look at the life of the apostles, the writers of the New Testament. Russell, can you think of an incident any place that's recorded where they feared, well, where they feared whatever the situation they were in, or man?
You can? Well, what I'm wanting is a biblical example of someone, one of the writers of the Bible, as telling us that he was afraid of something. Is there any other? Now, fear is the absence of what? What?
Fear is the absence. What? She said essence. Oh. Fear is the absence of faith. What does this tell us about the disciples? They were men. They were no different than you and I. That's right. So don't get to thinking that the writers of the Bible were super-duper saints.
They were, in that they were very godly men and endured so much more than we ever will. But at the same time, they were men. And they did at times not exercise their faith as they should have. Love, hope maketh not a shame, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us.
Love. David, what kind of love and where do we go to get it that he's talking about? Depends upon what I look like or what I do? That's right. The love that he requires is the love that his love require that he requires.
None else will ever do. It has to be his love, and he requires it from his people. So, Steve, there's no way that we could get that kind of love unless he gave it to us. And he did. And we are to exercise it.
It was imputed to us. Who does not remember the definition of impute? Good, everybody does. Russell, what does imputed mean? You never have title to it, but you use it as though it were yours. And then you'll have to answer for it.
The little word shed, present passive, and we have nothing to do with this. It is his love that is shed abroad. And if it were not for his love being shed upon us, we could not please him. The work that we do is not our work.
It's his work. And I mean it's his because it originated with him. Anybody not understand? This is the way that God's will is done in this world, is by his people. Well, by the people in the world, because he certainly uses the unsaved.
We have a graphic picture of that in Pharaoh. There seems to be two sets of wills in this world, ours and God's. Everything we do, for the most part, I will say, has an earthly will to it. We decide that we want to do this or that.
My wife and I decided years ago that we wanted an old house that we could restore, and it led us to Corsicana. Now, Russell, as far as we were concerned, thinking in our own mind, that was the reason we came to Corsicana, because we finally found a house that we thought we would like to have, and we acquired it.
But that was not the real reason, the godly reason of us coming here. It was so I'd meet you. So God's will will prevail. His counsel will stand. The work we do is not ours. It's his. He has his will done through people, most of the time unknowingly.
It is to bring praise to his glory. Everything is to please him. And if our motive is right, Greg, in everything that we do, for we do not know when we're actually doing a good deed, because we don't know what's good, but if our motive is spiritual, if it is exactly as it should be, then everything we do in the realm of good deeds for God will be a benefit to us in the rewards.
But we don't know that now. We cannot, as I've said so many times, you cannot decide you're going to do something good for God today because you can't. It's not man-made. Verse 6, For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
Greg, were you ungodly at one time? Yes, from man's viewpoint. So when we were yet without strength means that we were not saved. In due time, there's an interesting set of words. In due time. How many of you have ever had a bill that was due at a certain time?
What does that mean? And on that day it had better be paid. In due time. God is exact. He is the God of mathematics, geometry, trigonometry, calculus, whatever you want to say. But he does not operate in a shotgun style.
Everything is exact. Greg, what's the meaning of exact? Without any deviation whatsoever. Yes, that's right. God is exact. He can be. He's the only being that can. Absolute in time, space, and motion.
He made you know at the right exact moment, the right breath, when you belong to him. He didn't miss it by one breath under or one breath over. It was not just tonight or today I'm going to know. It's exactly what I know.
One cannot accept salvation. One can only receive it. You have no choice in the matter. There will be none of his children in hell. What's that mean, Russell? There'll be no Christian, potential Christian, in hell.
Why? There'll be no one slip by him. If you know someone determined to go to hell, tell them to go by themselves. Not try to take everybody else. There'll be none of the devil's children in heaven. Can you think how miserable they would be?
So, from knowing that, then your good witness or poor witness will not end in sending someone to hell. Causing them to go to heaven. Because then it would be by your works. And that can't be. If it is not by works to go to heaven, then it is not by works to go to hell.
So many preachers put on their people the guilt of you've got to go get them and bring them in or they'll never get saved. Now, this bit of knowledge does not lessen our responsibility one bit. In fact, it makes it more because we know the truth.
We'll have to answer for our own will. And that's the only thing for which we answer is our attitude and our will. His will will be done or he is not sovereign, one or the other. Seven, for scarcely for a righteous man will one die.
Yet peradventurer, for a good man some would even dare to die. But it's very, very rare. But God commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. The term while we were yet sinners implies what, David?
Well, if I would say it like back when we were still sinners. What's that imply? But it means something else, too. Back when you were a sinner. That's true, but you're all looking backwards. Look forward.
No, you're looking backward. Back when we were sinners. Yet while we were yet sinners means we're not sinners now. Then we were and we're not now. I get a lot of competition. Used to get a lot from the classes.
Not anymore. When I would make the statement that you are not a sinner saved by grace. You're not. That's a derogatory remark against God to be called a sinner when you're his. You remember Paul said, but it's not I that's doing it.
It's the old nature that does it. Meaning I am not doing it. I am righteous. The real you, the one that's going to go to heaven, is not a sinner. Work that into your vocabulary. You were a sinner. You were saved.
And you are now not a sinner. So he did die for us exactly as all of you have said. We have been saved from the penalty of sin. Is that good or not? True or false? True. He is saving us from the power of sin.
Is that true or false? He shall save us from the very presence of sin. Is that true or false? Nine, much more than. Being now justified by his blood. You are a justified person. We shall be saved from wrath.
For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son. Much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. Is God ever reconciled to man? Never. And not only so, but we also join in God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
By whom we have now received the atonement. The sealing. We have been sealed. The word pitch that Noah used to seal the ark inside and out. We get our word atonement from the same root word, pitch. It seals.
We have been sealed by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the seal himself. And notice, but we join in God through our Lord. Not by our Lord, but through our Lord. It has to pass through him. Twelve, wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world.
And death by sin, so death passed upon all men. For that all have sinned. Now they came into the world. Joy, tell me the difference between the word in and into. Into means that you were outside of it.
And every place we see mention of the Lord coming, being sent, or sin entering. It's always into. It's outside of this creation. Someplace else. That boggles my mind. From where then did sin come? That's the question.
So God generated sin? Where'd sin come from? Where is that? Where is that? Sin came from outer space. From nowhere. Space travels nothing new. Our Lord was an example of it. What? Where? Tell me what she said.
Yes. Outside of the creation. All right. If sin had never been permitted to come into this world, what would we have missed? The wisdom of God would never have been shown in his overcoming it. His mercy in pardoning it.
His power in subduing it. God loves us because of what we are. Slow this morning. He does not love us for what we are. It is for what, David? You can't say it pleased him. You cannot say it's just because it pleased him.
He loves us for what he will make out of us. Verse 14. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come, which is Jesus the Christ.
But not as the offense, so also is the free gift. In other words, you can't compare the two. For if through the offense of one, many be dead spiritually, much more the grace of God and the gift of grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.
Now he's using the word many, not all. Let me see if I can get an example over to you. Have any of you ever seen a feather pillow? Have you ever seen one tore open in a high wind? What happens, Joy? They go every place.
Now, what if you had been commanded to pick up every one of those feathers and put them back? Could you have done it? She always has conditions. It would be an impossible task for a man to pick up all of the feathers, put them back as they were.
Now, Greg, the sin that Adam perpetrated, he tore open the pillowcase, and those feathers blew every place. Impossible for a man to pick them up. But that's what Jesus did. He picked up every single one of them.
Impossible for a man, but not for God. And it is just like Adam had scattered sin into every one of God's children, but the Lord picked them up and put them back. Yes, that's what reconcile means. 16, but not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift.
For the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offenses unto justification. So just think of many, many, many feathers scattered every place. For if by one man's offense death reigned by one, much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.
Therefore, as by the offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation, even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all unto justification of life. Let me read this to you in Greek.
Therefore, as by the offense upon all men to condemnation, Adam's sin caused the seed of Satan to be born into this world. Therefore, as by the offense of one it came, is all the Greek says. And it means judgment upon all.
Now, the sin that Adam perpetrated caused the seed of Satan to be born into the world. Even so by the righteousness of one it came to all men, all men unto the justification of life. The all in the second use refers to all who believe, not every human being.
For as by one man's disobedience, many were made to be a sinner, so many, not all, many, Russell meaning his people, were made to be sinners, meaning that they were not sinners prior to this. When we were conceived in his thoughts, we were righteous.
Then Adam comes along, causes all of us that are his to be sinners. So by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. Now notice the change of tense. For as by one man's disobedience, many were made, past tense.
By the obedience of one shall many be made future. Moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound, for something to abound. Jesse, what do you think that means? That's right, becomes very prevalent.
The law entered that the offense might abound, or that it might be seen. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.
Great chapter. We'll go into chapter six next time. Now, just so you won't think I've forgotten, I promised you this week I'd ask you for your illustrations, I know it's for your thought on what is the most important thought a person could ever have.
Who has thought about that thought? Who can answer it for me? Greg, what happens when you work with a physicist? Anybody else want to take a stab at it? The most important thought you as a human can ever have is your personal relationship to the Lord.
Well, that would be included in that. One more question, and I'll make it in the way of a statement. We are not the only work of the Holy Spirit. When I say we, I'm talking about the Christians. We are not the only work of the Holy Spirit.
What is His other work? Go to John 16 and read verse 8. Watch this, see, David. So the Holy Spirit is causing the world to know that they sin. If He didn't, they'd have no responsibility. All right, anything from anybody.
I'm sorry I've been so hard of hearing this morning, but it's one of those days. Russell, would you dismiss us, please?